“It will take many years. It will take many tough decisions along the way, but it will happen,” de Blasio said at a City Hall press conference.

Rikers has become a symbol of dysfunction and despair in recent years as harrowing tales of abuse and neglect have piled up.

The mayor’s promise to replace it with smaller jails scattered around the city, while ambitious, was light on details.

Closing the dilapidated jail complex — which entered the national spotlight again after the June 2015 suicide of 22-year-old Kalief Browder — will take up to 10 years and prisoners would be shuttled off to other facilities, reports USA Today.